Absence of Ugliness

I was asked to appear as a guest on Desktop Design, an eight-part television series airing on TV Ontario, the Canadian equivalent of PBS. One of the 30-minute segments had a very interesting title, "The Conversation of Design," and from it spun a lively conversation between host, guest, director, and producer, which ultimately influenced the entire direction of the broadcast.

The original script called for me to expound on the various principles of design that lead to effective documents and drawings with CorelDRAW and Ventura. The host asked me, "Rick, as the expert, what kind of advice do you have for creating excellent artwork and publications?"

My answer: "None."

It was right about here when the director yelled, "Stop tape!" (they don't actually say "Cut"), and the producer was undoubtedly asking himself why he hired me in the first place. And the host--she figured I had just walked in off the street.

"Are you not okay with that question?" asked the producer, using his most diplomatic tone.

"Well, I'm not an expert on design and I'm not really comfortable offering advice on how to produce beautifully-designed artwork."

The producer thought for a moment ("Well what the hell do you do??") before asking me if there were a direction that I would be more comfortable taking ("Like out those doors and back home to California").

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